Badass Ugly Macaroons

I love macaroons, even before I know what they were. They were French, and that was good enough for me. But they were expensive little buggers. And when I eventually cough out enough money to buy some to try, I didn't immediately take to them. They were too sweet for me. But then one Chinese New Year, my brother got me half a dozen of Canele's macaroons, and I absolutely love those! And they remain, my fave in Singapore. But they were expensive. And there were no Canele in the East side. So eventually, I got it into my head to make my own. Craving can make one do crazy things.

First I borrowed like 8 books on macaroons alone from the library, and I watched a lot of youtubes and read a lot of websites to mentally prepare myself for it. It took me a week or two to gather all the equipments and ingredient.

Many of the websites talked about the macaroon Gods. So I thought I would rather be safe than sorry. So before starting, a peace offering to the macaroon Gods as seen above :P

Here are all the stuff you need to make those little buggers. I ripped them off a website I found. You can find the recipe in the 2nd link below. I was going to make chocolate macaroons cause I figure if it s going to turn out into a disaster, I can always lick the fillings and be happy about that.

 

I hand whipped my meringue. I took me just a few minutes. But when I mixed in the dry stuff, it was kinda lumpy as I didn't have any shiever. Doesn't matter to me since everything is going to end up in my tummy eventually. I drew the mold on my baking paper, and the first 4 batch were quite disastrous.  I didn't know they would grow so big when baked! I got some letter "8", some "Anpan-man" looking macaroons, some almond biscuits and almond bread thingy, and some burnt one as well. Every batch was quite hilarious to me. I can only say I laugh a lot at what came out of my oven! They were ugly as hell! But they taste so good! So full of body then those I had in a famous hotel just a week or so ago.

Here's the nicer looking end product. I made about 2 to 3 dozen mean looking chocolate macaroons, and 3 strawberry and cream macaroons (same almond crust with a dollop of thick cream with freshly slice strawberry.  I had some for breakfast, some for supper, some for tea. I gave some away to house guest, and packed 8 into a house box to give to my brother. Ugly as they are, they were all gone in 3 days!

Would I make them again? YES! They were delicious! I think I'll make more this weekend! They make me happy, and sugar high, and I just love chewing on them! Yes, the one I make is kinda chewy which I kinda like. And I got some consultation from friends that to make the legs, I need to let them dry completely before baking them. One friend also told me not to stir the dry stuff with the meringue, but to fold it in with just a few swipe. Hmmm.....I shall try it again! がんばって愛ちゃん!

Ref:
Canele

http://bravetart.com/recipes/Macarons

http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2011/04/how-to-make-macarons-whats-working-for-me-right-now/

http://bravetart.com/blog/TheTenCommandments
Anpan-man